Tennis to mind the gender gap

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) revealed that it pays both sexes equally for their sporting achievements, but is “not satisfied” with its gender pay gap.

In a 2017 report, there was a 31 percent difference between the mean average pay of men and women, as a result of men placed in more senior positions. Government legislations now require every organisation with more than 250 employees to publish the gender pay and bonus gaps.

LTA Chairman David Gregson said: “We are not satisfied with this and we are acutely aware that we still have work to do in closing this gap. Our lack of diversity and gender imbalance, particularly at senior levels, is something we want to address.” Other chief sports, such as football, cricket and rugby will be under scrutiny when they reveal their gender pay numbers before the April deadline.

LTA’s report also showed that 87 percent of its male staff received a bonus, compared to 74 percent of women. To some extent, it was partially attributed to the bonuses paid out after England won the Davis Cup in 2016 over Belgium. The tennis governing body also said that women are under represented at the highest level and are given lower paid roles due to its flexibility in positions at the bottom.

The LTA caused uproar when ‘Sports Agenda’ revealed that former chief executive Roger Draper received a £640,000 pay package in 2012, giving their male workforce far more money than females, despite the fact 293 employees are divided almost equally between the sexes.

Management officials are against this imbalance carrying on. Equal pay has been a dominant topic in the history of tennis. In 1973, the US Open became the first major venue to pay both sexes the same. It was not until 2017 when this was the case in all four grand slam tournaments.

According to Forbes Magazine, only three of the ten highest paid tennis players in 2017 were women and none of them were in the top five.

Serena Williams, Angelique Kerber and Venus Williams made the shortlist, taking into account earnings from prize money and endorsements.

UK Sport told governing bodies to bring in more women or lose funding. This crackdown has appeared after the LTA discovered the shocking imbalance of the gender pay gap between the sexes. Whilst the LTA recognise this is a major problem, they are determined to clamp down on the gender pay imbalance by closing the gap.